RRR (Reminder...Rush for Reservations...) 2014

There has been lots of work going on behind the scenes recently leading up to our Rehabs' Reunion which is as usual happening in September - big thanks to Krista who has been working her socks off for us!

All the info and booking forms can be found here: http://rockleyrehabreunion.weebly.com/ and you can catch up with who's going, which cakes may be on offer, offers or requests for transport help and general chat on our Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/217935004889324/

Its certainly going to be bigger and better than ever but places are going really fast, even though its 3 months away, so if you are wanting to come please get onto the website and book as soon as you can - there are only 8 horse spaces left and we have a waiting list of non-Rockley horses who will be able to take the remaining places if there are any left by 1st August.  

See you there!

A proper summer's day...

 Rockley looking absolutely gorgeous - photos to hoard for later in the year!

Columbo and the contracted heels

Columbo has been her for 4 weeks now so its time for an update. He is the big showjumper who arrived with very contracted heels and a persistent and long-standing RF lameness. 

As his RF is the worse foot it makes sense to concentrate on comparisons of that first. As always, his original photos are at the top and those from 4 weeks later are below. 

The most significant changes from this angle are the shorter toe and better hoof pastern axis but this angle doesn't really highlight the big problem with Columbo's palmar hoof...

...which is much more visible when you focus on frog and heels. Its the contraction of his frog  - far worse on this foot than his LF - which is the most serious problem as its also led to a weak digital cushion. Thats an issue for any horse but a real headache if you are over 18hh, bred to jump and need all the shock absorption you can get. 

Today his frog is slowly beginning to open out but we've got a long way to go before its a really functioning frog. This is also clear from his landing, which is now heel first on his LF but not yet on this foot. 

The deep cracks which were apparent in his central sulcus and at the sides of the frog are improving and his hoof wall is also considerably shorter, which is a good sign. Its also encouraging to see from this angle that the frog is now closer to the top of the heels - meaning its beginning to receive more ground stimulus and should continue to strengthen over the next few weeks. 

Of course there will be more on Columbo soon!

New boy Russell

New horse Russell made the long journey from Yorkshire yesterday but arrived looking extremely cheerful and ready to show us what he was made of. 

As usual with new horses, it was important to assess how he was landing and loading his feet and to see him move on straight lines and on the lunge so that we could establish how capable he was at day one and what we needed to improve. 

Russell is another long term barefoot horse and has pretty decent feet. On his initial photos, the only things which really jump out are the poor hoof pastern axis on his RF and his weak frogs and digital cushions, which affect both front feet. 

However the good news is that he is landing heel first though he does have a medio-lateral imbalance which is causing his RF to land laterally.

Even on this, his worse foot, there is lots to like and he certainly has a head start over many horses who come here. 

 The LF is the stronger looking foot but Russell  - in true pony fashion - doesn't like to make things too easy for us and actually has been lamer on this side that on the RF, even though his landing is better on this side.

The LF is certainly more symmetrical, except for the strange heel imbalance which is clear from this photo. 

Just to add to the confusion, he shows a clear muscle imbalance through his shoulders and hindquarters which are far more developed on the left side than the right...

Despite all this, Russell is capable of starting work straightaway and we will certainly have lots to work on, both in terms of straightness and of course his feet. More on him soon!

Another busy weekend...

Busy weekend for lots of the ex-rehabs and I've had poor internet so am only just catching up with what people have been doing - apologies to those I've missed out!

Lucy and Fryday have been stressaging again and again have come back with a frilly - its starting to be something of a habit! Fryday is looking amazing - his stride is so much longer than it was when I first met him and he is a really smart chap.

Krista and Buddy have been doing lots of jumping and getting ready for their first ODE - you can read about their adventures on Buddy's blog, of course, including their coach's thoughts on Buddy's feet!

http://www.buddysbarefootadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/wicked-lesson-with-warren-lamperd.html

Last but not least a fun pic from Lucy and Amanda who came second in a 1m jumping class - excellent job as always!

(Lucy really was born to jump - as I was uploading her photo I came across this one from June 2013 - go Lucy!)

The horse is the best trimmer

Duffy arrived 2 weeks ago with long hoof wall, overgrown frogs and a landing that was nowhere near as good as it should have been in a long term barefoot horse. However, he had been in quarantine for several weeks as he was coming back into the UK and it was clear his feet were itching to adapt and change. 

Seeing a foot like this, many people's first reaction would be to reach for the hoof knife and nippers and a few years ago I would have done the same. But really there is no need, because Duffy already knew exactly what he needed to - he just needed the movement to be allowed to do it. 

Here is the same foot 2 weeks later with no trimming but plenty of mileage on different surfaces. His landing is now clearly heel first, his frog looks fantastic and his heels and bars can do their job properly.

 A much shorter foot but its been achieved gradually and in response only to the stimulus Duffy has created as he has been moving around. Nothing has been removed except where the foot is already strong enough and the stimulus of the miles over which he has done this have already resulted in a more capable hoof internally as well as externally.

A comparison of the hoof from the front is interesting because the wall was so long at the toe that it had cracked and you can clearly see the leverage which was creating it. We often focus on cracks because they are such a visible problem but in fact in my experience they are rarely a primary issue and as the hoof becomes healthier they often sort themselves out. 

Two weeks later as you can see the toe has shortened and the crack is now superficial and should grow out quite easily. The hoof wall at the toe is untidy where the weak, unsupported wall has chipped away but that too is cosmetic and his feet should look rather smart in another fortnight. 

Why not all grass is created equal - and why horses can have problems with grazing

I posted a link on Facebook the other day to this fascinating research which has been published by Bangor University.

The research was flagged up in an article which is online here (you may need to register to read it) and one of the encouraging aspects is the acknowledgement that UK grass has the potential to be very dangerous for horses, particularly in spring and autumn.  

Of course we all knew that already but its great to see an article aimed at farmers pointing out that horses very often simply can't tolerate the high sugar levels in our grazing.

The research project was particularly interesting for me because it:

"set out to analyse sugar content of old pasture species from a hill farm in North Wales and compare the sugar levels with more modern types of grass such as perennial rye".

Why is this interesting? Simply because its an issue we see here all the time.

Horses come to Rockley and can graze our grass very safely. We don't turn them out 24/7 because its essential for their feet that they spend time on the tracks but most horses cope extremely well with grazing here, even those who have been diagnosed with metabolic problems or who can only tolerate very limited - or no - grazing back home.

Like the hill farm in the study, our fields have a wide range of different plants and grasses in them and horses also have access to the hedges and some wooded areas while they are turned out - both on the tracks and in the fields. 

A study of plants undertaken by the National Park at Rockley some years ago found 38 different herbs and grasses in one field alone and  - interestingly - noted that the scrubby, apparently "low value" grazing areas were favourite areas for the ponies who were kept here then.

By contrast, many modern fields have a very limited number of grasses and so the biodiversity available to grazing horses is restricted. This can be a problem because horses, unlike cattle, have evolved to thrive on high fibre, low sugar diets and love to forage on shrubs and other plants rather than graze exclusively. Ryegrass is a favourite in modern farming because its good for producing beef and dairy cattle, but horses need a very different diet. 

For horses, the most dangerous part about ryegrass is the sugar levels and this is what the study was aiming to quantify. When they compared the fructose contents of the ryegrass vs the hill grasses the difference was shocking. 

"The new variety [of perennial ryegrass] is the highest with a 332mg/g fructose content in comparison to 0.52mg/g in Meadow Fescue".

Yep, you read that right - modern ryegrass can be 600 times higher in fructose than old pasture species.

So its pretty clear that horses who can safely graze old permanent pasture can quickly develop serious problems on even tiny amounts of modern leys, especially as they love the sweet, sugary taste of ryegrass.  A double-whammy is that short, sweet grass often contains not just too much sugar but not enough fibre - exactly what the horse does not need. 

This can lead to obvious, immediate veterinary emergencies like colic and laminitis but also slower, insidious damage which results from consistently high levels of sugar in the diet - metabolic problems like PPID (cushings) and insulin resistance which take longer to develop but are just as damaging. 

Its fantastic that research like this has been done because for too long horses and their owners have been suffering from the consequences of inappropriate grazing but without having many solutions or alternatives, especially if grazing needs to be restricted. 

Now we have a real chance to not only develop better management systems for our horses but also use better grasses and grazing so that they can be more safely turned out and have the sorts of lifestyles which they - and we - love.